Julia Scheeres 
A Canadian artist has implanted microchips in her hands in a quest to explore the relationship between identity and technology in an era when life is increasingly regulated by gadgets and machines.
The creation of a biochip that can be implanted into people to transmit their personal information has been fantasy fodder for technophiles as well as being an Orwellian omen for others.
These are some of the issues Nancy Nisbet hopes to explore.
"I am expecting the merger between human and machines to proceed whether we want it to or not," said Nisbet. "If I adopt it and make it my own, I will have a better understanding of this type of technology and the potential threats and benefits it represents."
Nisbet, 34, purchased the chips from a veterinary clinic -- they are commonly used to identify livestock and pets. And after several rejections, she finally found a doctor willing to implant them in her body. (Microchips haven't been approved for human use in either the United States or Canada.)
Her chips, which emit a read-only 134-kilohertz frequency that is read by a scanner, contain a 12-digit alphanumeric ID. They were injected into the back of her ...   more »

Ellen Messmer, Network World
A U.S. government plan to use long-range RFID technology as part of a border-crossing security initiative is coming under intensified fire by an industry group.
Beginning Jan. 31, 2008, a valid driver's license won't be enough for travelers to pass between the United States and Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Bermuda, under new Department of Homeland Security (DHS) rules. A standard government passport will be required, or a birth certificate with driver's license. But as an alternative, DHS is moving forward with a pilot program that has states adding long-range RFID technology to driver's licenses.
The idea is to have U.S. border guards with RFID readers quickly read a traveler's RFID-enhanced driver's license remotely and make a face check and watch for any posted security red flags pulled up by a database.
But the RFID technology is coming under fire from some, including the industry group Smart Card Alliance, which says long-range RFID is a bad idea in terms of security and operational efficiency.
"Long-range RFID is meant for tracking packages in a warehouse," says Randy Vanderhoof, executive director of the Smart Card Alliance, which has been tracking the laws and technology proposals for what DHS ...   more »

Pro-border security advocates are warning that the new North Carolina driver's license is a dangerous first step toward a "North American Union" driving permit.
The Tar Heel State recently introduced a license that includes a hologram on its reverse side.
The problem: Critics object that the hologram portrays the entire North American continent, not just the United States. Moreover, they say it looks just like the map of North American used as the logo on the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America Web site (www.spp.gov).
The SPP supports enhanced regulatory cooperation and the promotion of cross-border trade among the United States, Mexico, and Canada.
Those who object to the North American Union and related projects like the NAFTA Super Highway say it will compromise American sovereignty, exacerbate border-security concerns, and ultimately lead to economic hardships for U.S. citizens.
Groups opposed to illegal immigration worry that a North American driver's license could ultimately enable a citizen of Mexico, Canada, or the United States to travel freely anywhere on the Continent.
William Gheen, who heads the Raleigh, N.C.-based Americans for Legal Immigration political action committee, says the new license is “‘North American Union' ready.”
Gheen says he’ll protest the ...   more »

Building 'free trade gateway' between Asia, North America
By Jerome R. Corsi
Canada is developing Pacific ports to compete with the U.S. ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, as well as with the Mexican ports of Manzanillo and Lazaro Cardenas, in an attempt to draw a substantial market share of the millions of containers expected to flow into North America in the coming decades from China and the Far East.
To attract Chinese container traffic, the Canadian government has launched a major ports-rail-truck-airport transportation infrastructure designed to build its version of the emerging NAFTA Superhighway.
In October 2006, the Canadian minority government under the direction of Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper launched the Asia-Pacific Gateway and Corridor Initiative, or APGCI, as a key component of Canada's national transportation policy.
The idea is to prepare deep-water Pacific Ocean ports on Canada's West Coast to facilitate the import of millions of multi-modal containers from China as a "free trade gateway" between Asia and North America.
WND reported Mexico plans to extend the Trans-Texas Corridor south in what government officials in Mexico are calling a "Trans North America Corridor."
According to Transport Canada, Canada's equivalent to the U.S. Department of Transportation, rail ...   more »

By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
Behind the walls of federal prisons nationwide, chaplains have been quietly carrying out a systematic purge of religious books and materials that were once available to prisoners in chapel libraries.
The chaplains were directed by the Bureau of Prisons to clear the shelves of any books, tapes, CDs and videos that are not on a list of approved resources. In some prisons, the chaplains have recently dismantled libraries that had thousands of texts collected over decades, bought by the prisons, or donated by churches and religious groups.
Some inmates are outraged. Two of them, a Christian and an Orthodox Jew, in a federal prison camp in upstate New York, filed a class-action lawsuit last month claiming the bureau’s actions violate their rights to the free exercise of religion as guaranteed by the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
Traci Billingsley, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Prisons, said the agency was acting in response to a 2004 report by the Office of the Inspector General in the Justice Department. The report recommended steps that prisons should take, in light of the Sept. 11 attacks, to avoid becoming recruiting grounds for militant Islamic and other religious ...   more »